THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY, 
MARCH,  1854. 
REMARKS  ON  CHINESE  PHARMACY. 
By  Gustavus  L.  Simmons,  of  Sacramento,  California. 
Having  often  read  with  interest,  articles  concerning  the  "  State 
of  Pharmacy"  in  other  countries  than  our  own,  I  have  thought 
that  a  few  observations  I  have  been  recently  enabled  to  make  in 
regard  to  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  knowledge  of  the  Chinese, 
might  not  prove  uninteresting— especially  as  this  ancient  and 
singular  race  is  at  present  attracting  the  attention  of  the  civilized 
world. 
We  have  often  read  and  heard  that  they  had  no  regular  system 
of  medical  practice,  but  depended  for  a  cure,  when  sick,  on  incan- 
tations and  superstitious  orgies,  similar  to  those  practiced  by  many 
of  the  Indian  tribes  of  North  America.  This  idea  we  believe  to  be 
untrue,  as  it  is  at  total  variance  with  our  own  observations. 
The  city  of  Sacramento  is  the  great  interior  depot  for  the  Chi- 
nese in  California.  Here  a  portion  of  the  town  is  wholly  occupied 
by  them,  in  fact  presents  a  miniature  of  a  Chinese  city,  and  as  such 
is  often  visited  by  persons  who  desire  to  become  better  acquainted 
with  the  habits  of  this  strange  people. 
Hearing  an  apothecary  was  located  there,  I  resolved  to  make 
him  a  visit,  and  accordingly  recently  started  on  what  I  at  first 
supposed  would  be  a  fruitless  errand.  Fortunately,  at  the  onset,  I 
met  with  an  intelligent  Chinaman,  who  had  been  partially  educated 
by  the  missionaries,  and  who  could  quite  readily  express  himselt 
in  the  English  language. 
This  gentleman  very  kindly  took  upon  himself  the  task  of  ac- 
companying us,  and  explaining  all  that  became  necessary.  The 
exterior  of  the  shop  we  visited  was  in  no  wise  dissimilar  to  these 
of  other  occupations.  A  sign  over  the  entrance  alone  gives  the 
passer  by  a  knowledge  of  the  business  followed  within. 
The  sign,  in  the  present  instance,  must  have  cost  the  artist  who 
executed  it  considerable  labor.  All  of  the  complicated  Chinese 
characters  were  deeply  graven  in  the  wood  of  which  it  was  com- 
7 
